Pokemon Trading Card Game Pocket is the hottest Pokemon-related thing to come out this year. That said, it is also very much a gacha game, which means that it is built to compel you to drop potentially hundreds, or even thousands of dollars into the game to complete your digital collection. How is anyone determined to keep their money in their pocket supposed to enjoy a game designed like that?
Fortunately, the ebb and flow of gacha games have been thoroughly documented, especially since that whole Star Wars Battlefront II mess happened years ago. And equipped with that knowledge, you can succeed in Pokemon Trading Card Game Pocket and even compete against the biggest whales in the game without spending money.,With that said, here’s what free-to-play players should expect out of their experience and how they can make the most of it.
Accept that you won’t get everything
The first rule of every gacha game is to completely turn off any part of your brain that tells you you’re a completionist. While you do get free booster packs every day in Pokemon TCG Pocket, sheer economics will tell you that you won’t open enough booster packs to actually complete your card collection. After all, if you could get every card for free, what would you spend money on?
New cards will inevitably come out faster than you can collect them with the free resources the game provides. Naturally, this means you need to lower your expectations of what you should chase. Immersive three star cards have a paltry 0.222% chance of showing up in a pack. Crown rares only have a 0.040% chance! This doesn’t mean you’ll never get these cards, of course. It’s just that you shouldn’t necessarily choose which pack to open in hopes you’ll get a card that has a 1 in 2500 chance of appearing.
Instead, set your sight on cards that will help you win battles. This will help you get the most rewards during events, which will in turn help you collect even more cards.
Chase cards that will help you build decks of each element
Pokemon Trading Card Game Pocket doesn’t give you many options to chase down specific cards as of writing, but you can exert some control over which cards you can get. Right now, the three Genetic Apex card sets each contain distinct pools of cards. The fewer cards you own from a certain set, the greater the chance you’ll find a new card in your next pack.
As a free-to-play player, your first goal is to collect enough cards to build a competent deck of each element. You don’t need to make a meta deck of each element, mind you. Charizard EX and Moltres EX have great synergy, but if you played during the Fire Pokemon Mass Outbreak Event, you already have a strong deck in Blaine, Ninetails, and Rapidash. Pick the packs you choose to pull strategically, with the goal of selecting packs that will most likely strengthen whichever elemental deck is weakest. For instance, if you can’t build a strong Dark deck, Genetic Apex Mewtwo has a strong core of Ekans, Grimer, Zubat, and Koffing evolution lines you can add to your collection.
Take stock of what you have to build out your “main” deck
Once you have strong elemental coverage under your belt, you’ll want to build a deck to take into online PvP battles. While online battling can feel intimidating at first, matches are mostly low-stakes in Pokemon Trading Card Game Pocket, and there’s no way for your opponent to send you mean messages about how you’re a bad player for not using the mythical Dunsparce card. I typically stay far away from PvP modes myself, so I can assure you that online battling isn’t nearly as scary as it sounds.
Look at the cards you already have and figure out which deck you can realistically build that can win online battles. Sure, in the game’s current meta, cards like Mewtwo EX and Gardevoir rule the roost when used together. However, if you don’t have any copies of either card, you’ll need a lot of luck with your card pulls to make that deck work. However, if you already have, say, two Exeggutor EX cards, you might be close to putting together a strong Grass deck bolstered by the Erika trainer card. Maybe your deck won’t be “meta,” but at least you’ll have a solid foundation to work with as you continue to collect cards.
On the plus side, less popular decks can thrive online because they aren’t meta. After all, if everyone uses decks with Pikachu EXs, then most players will learn how to best counter them. However, if you roll up with a Marowak EX deck, you may leave your opponent scrambling to come up with a counterplay. Just remember that success in Pokemon Trading Card Game Pocket battles often comes down to sheer luck, so don’t feel like your deck is bad just because you’re struggling to win!
Show up for the daily grind
With solid decks to play the game under your belt, or at least enough cards to get your feet wet, it’s time to do what every free-to-play game devolves into: daily grinding. To the game’s credit, Pokemon Trading Card Game Pocket is light on this front. Your literal “daily missions” can be completed in about 10 minutes. That said, if you want to collect as many free resources as you can as you play, participate in the following:
- Use your free booster packs when they become available.
- Check your Wonder Picks, especially if your Wonder Stamina is almost full. Events may dish out free Wonder Picks throughout the day, so check in whenever you open the game.
- Participate in any ongoing single-player events, and don’t sit on a full Event Stamina bar. You can often repeat these battles to grind out bonus hourglasses and unique event cards.
- Battle other players in Versus mode. You can get up to five shop tickets a day from players who press the “thanks” button after battle (make sure to return the favor and thank them too!). Remember, Shop Tickets can be used to buy Hourglasses, which means more cards.
- You can also give Shop Tickets to your friends by liking their Showcases. Thank all your friends and they might return the favor, as long as you’ve set up your own showcase!
Stockpile your resources once you have enough
Admittedly, stockpiling resources somewhat relies on assumptions, since there’s no way to predict the future in a live service game. While we know that some resources will eventually expire (such as Pack Points used to get a card of your choice), nothing indicates that hourglasses can’t be used for future expansions. So if you’ve collected all the cards you need to win battles and have fulfilled most of your collection-based missions, consider following the advice of your elders who grew up in a much better economy and start saving for the future.
At the end of the day, there’s no hard science to playing games like Pokemon Trading Card Game Pocket. No one’s going to knock on your door and take your phone away because you didn’t manage your free-to-play account optimally. But when shiny new cards drop and players begin to rack up hundreds of dollars on their credit cards chasing them, you’ll be happy to have a handful of pulls in reserve so you can enjoy the new stuff too. You’ll never own as many cards as a hardcore spender does. But you can at least rest easy knowing that you worked for the cards you got..
Video games are meant to be fun, so hopefully using your resources to best fill out your collection will help you get the most out of Pokemon Trading Card Game Pocket. And if you aren’t having fun… well, Infinity Nikki looks pretty good.
Pokemon Trading Card Game Pocket is available now for iOS and Android devices.